The Loyal School Board Discusses New Staff, Collaborations With Greenwood, and More
Tuesday, February 28th, 2023 -- 11:00 AM
The Loyal School Board began their meeting with a presentation on the Title I and 4YK programs.
Title I teacher Pamela Smith spoke to the Board about the elementary Title I program. She reviewed the topics of Structured Literacy Model, Balanced versus Structured literacy; Math Interventions and upcoming Title I events.
Alison Schley and Jenae Weyer presented to the Board about the changes recently implemented in the 4YK program. The major change to the 4YK program is the change to 4 full days per week instead of 2 full days per week.
In order to implement this change, they added a second teacher and classroom.
Alison reviewed the 4YK daily schedule and the academic expectations and how the current 4YK class is meeting their expectations. The Board gave a big “Thank You” to each of these ladies for their very informative presentations.
They hired a Mathematics Teacher for the 2023-24 School Year. Robert Cypher will be joining the staff for the 2023-24 school year to replace Mike Strick who will be retiring at the end of the 2022-23 school year. Roscoe Lamovec was hired as a middle school baseball coach for the cooperative teams with Greenwood.
They did not approve the 2023-24 School Calendar. This item was tabled until March. The CWETN Consortium Agreement was approved for the 2023-24 school year. The AGR Mid-Year Report was tabled until March.
Summer Rec Program Fees will remain the same for the summer of 2023. They are currently charging $20 per kid for the summer rec program. That is also what Greenwood is charging and they have cooperative teams with them for 8, 10, 12 and 14U baseball and softball. They discussed the DASHIR cleaning services contract proposal. This item was tabled until March to get an updated quote.
The lawn mowing service proposal from Curley Creek Lawn Care, LLC was approved. They will mow the golf course and the football field each week for $300; and trim the football field fence area as needed for $60 per time. Their own custodial staff will mow the areas in front of the high school and on the sides of the building.
They reviewed the last Professional Development/Collaboration Day with Greenwood on February 10th when the Loyal staff went to Greenwood. The Greenwood staff will be coming to Loyal on Wednesday, March 1st.
The new mascot and colors for the cooperative teams with Greenwood (Cross Country, middle school baseball, Softball, and Football) were approved. A survey was given to all Loyal and Greenwood students regarding a mascot and colors for the cooperative teams with Greenwood.
The final three mascot options (Wolves, Eagles, Patriots) were put to a vote by the students with Wolves winning with over 50% of the vote. The colors will be White/Silver and Gray/Black and a maroon/red mix for accent.
The Board approved the purchase of 7 Mindsets Mental Health curriculum for Staff and Students. They have been awarded a grant to purchase curriculum/materials for mental health for students and staff. They have a proposal from 7 Mindsets for the materials for $20,000 which will cover K-12.
The Wellness committee reviewed the materials and recommended the purchase. The money received from the “Get Kids Ahead” grant will pay for it in full for the 2023-24 school year.
They have been working very hard getting the information out to the voters on the upcoming referendum. There has been information on our website and social media. A list of all the purchases made with the ESSER funds has been created and will be distributed to staff.
A list of meetings and Loyal events has been created where Board members or administration could attend to hand out the information fliers and give out information. They will be scheduling an informational meeting in March.
The Board also heard the Administrators’ Reports. Elementary Principal Nancy Popp reported on Friday, February 17th , the 3rd , 4th and 5th grade classes were scheduled to go on a field trip to the Grand Theater in Wausau to see the Peking Acrobats.
Unfortunately, the show was canceled because of the weather. At this time, they do not know if the performance will be rescheduled. The meeting for 5th graders (and their parents) that are interested in band will be rescheduled.
Summer school proposals were emailed to all staff. These should be returned to Christy in the elementary office by February 24th if they are interested in teaching summer school this year.
Prairie Run Dental will be here on Tuesday, February 28th to provide dental hygiene presentations for 4K through grade 3. Terrance Tally will be here to do a motivational presentation to all grades on Monday, March 6th. The elementary presentation will be from 2:30-3:05 in the high school gym.
Winter break for the students will be Wednesday, March 1st through Friday, March 3rd . Staff break is Thursday, March 2nd through Friday, March 3rd. The SOLES Committee will have a meeting on Monday, February 27th at 6:30.
There will be a staff professional development day on Wednesday, March 1st . A schedule will be emailed to staff. March 6 –10th will be Read Across America Week. The Title I teachers have set up some activities and dress up days for the students and staff to participate in.
Title I Family Night will be held in April along with our final Parent/Teacher conference night District sponsored professional development, UDL lessons and a book study, are being offered from now until the end of the school year. In the middle of completing the second round of teacher observations.
High School Principal Doug Dieckman reported, in the past past 30 days:
- Attending a HRS (High Reliability Schools Summit);
- Follow up white paper and links shared;
- Term 2 observations in progress for all MSHS staff;
- Teacher self-reviews finalized;
- Beginning year review of teachers EEP completed;
- Joint PD with Greenwood on Feb. 10;
- And ARC instructional coach on site Jan. 31 and virtual visit on Feb. 16.
Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.